Herbert Zweibon

A new evangelical pro-Israel lobby, Christians United for Israel, should be welcomed enthusiastically by all friends of Israel. As Iran threatens to obliterate Israel, a Hamas-led government abandons all shred of pretense that Palestinian Arabs seek peace and everywhere the forces denying the very legitimacy of the state gather strength, the advent of a group that can energize the Republican base on behalf of Israel is a cause for celebration. Instead it is encountering carping and criticism from Jewish organizations pretending to promote Israel’s interests.

Abraham Foxman of the ADL, who has never encountered an evangelical group which did not “frighten him,” worries “Will they be able to differentiate between their biblical prophecy mode and their pragmatic pro-Israel mode?” Then there’s Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, who announces “If they oppose the government, it’s an anti-Israel lobby as far as I’m concerned.” (This is comical from Yoffie, who has never hesitated to oppose policies of the Israel government when they conflict with his capitulationist beliefs.) According to Yoffie, if the new group opposes “territorial flexibility,” “I would consider that dangerous to Israel.”

In short, what people like Foxman and Yoffie fear is that Christians United for Israel will be a lobby against further Israeli unilateral retreats (only the euphemisms change, from “peace process” to “disengagement” to the current term “convergence”). The motivation of its leader the Rev. John Hagee (who has raised millions of dollars for Israel) and his supporters is of course belief in the Biblical covenant that gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people.

We at Americans for a Safe Israel profoundly hope that Christians United for Israel will throw its weight against the policy of continued surrender-to-terror advocated by Israel’s current Prime Minister, a policy that not only negates the Biblical covenant but, far from being “pragmatic,” negates all reason. The Oslo peace process failed so Prime Minister Sharon embarked on a unilateral retreat from Gaza. That failed. Beautiful and agriculturally bountiful Jewish settlements like Neve Dekalim and Morag have been converted into Hamas training bases and launching pads for rocket attacks on southern Israel, the stones of the former homes used for Hamas guardhouses. Prime Minister Olmert now vows to make Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria Hamas terror bases and launching pads to destroy what remains of Israel. This is pragmatism? What happens when the PA, from the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria which Olmert proposes to empty of Jews, launches missiles against Israeli civilian planes over Lod airport? Or when rockets, launched from the now judenrein Gaza Strip, destroy crucial infrastructure, like the plant in Ashkelon which provides much of Israel with electricity?

Israeli military commanders have sounded the warning. On January 23, recent chief of staff General Moshe Yaalon declared “The 1967 borders are not defensible borders for Israel and are strategically damaging.” The retreat from Gaza, says Yaalon (in the Spring issue of Azure) is interpreted by the Arabs “as an Israeli ‘breakdown’ to be exploited as a victory for the resistance.” Similarly, former deputy chief of military intelligence Yaakov Amidror says that abandonment of the high ground dominating Tel Aviv leaves the “central stretch of Israel’s coastal strip where most of its population and industrial capacity are located completely exposed.”

So we hope Christians United for Israel will not be intimidated by false counselors like Foxman and Yoffie and will be forthright in defense of Israel’s legitimate rights. This is where true pragmatism and genuine safety for Israel lie.